Grundfos tests a group of Korean and Danish university talents. They get one week to come up with their innovative solutions in a business case.

How can you use data analysis to dynamically control the energy consumption in commercial buildings? This question will be posed to some of the best, young minds Korea and Denmark have got to offer, when pump company Grundfos challenges them to come up with an answer. This will take place during a one week long, intense innovation camp. All in all 20 students will participates, 10 Koreans and 10 Danes. The camp is arranged in cooperation with Korean universities KAIST and Seoul National University, three Danish universities and Innovation Centre Denmark in Korea.

“The Grundfos Student Innovation Camp is a prime example of the efforts of the Innovation Centre to facilitate valuable industry-academia connections between Korean and Danish partners. I believe that by bringing together some of the brightest young minds from our two countries, we are sowing the seeds for future cooperation in the areas of innovation and sustainable growth,” says Thomas Lehmann, Danish ambassador to Korea.

Solutions for the real world
During the week, the students will be divided into mixed teams, and they will be given the opportunity of gathering knowledge from a combination of lectures and site visits. Among other places, the Korean icon Samsung will invite the participants to have a look at their premises, and let them ask the right questions and by that come up with ideas as to how to optimize energy efficiency there.

“We are happy to play a part in giving the students a unique opportunity to try out their theoretically founded knowledge in real world situations. At the same time this gives us at Grundfos the possibility of getting a closer look at some of the sharp minds from the universities, people who could be very interesting to connect with in the future,” says Hyun Wook Shin, General Manager of Grundfos Pumps Korea.

Hard work ahead
The students will kick off their assignments on October 26th and on the 31st they will present their innovative bids for future solutions to an expert panel.

“We expect answers to our question which are on high levels. And we expect that the students will be challenged both by the complexity of the assignment and by the sharp deadline,” says Hyun Wook Shin.

“How to reduce energy consumption, and thereby CO2-emission, in buildings is important on a global scale, and it is important to Grundfos. Pumps can play an important part in doing this. By replacing old pumps with new, energy efficient ones, 4 percent of the world’s total electricity consumption could be cut away. This makes pumps an affordable answer to the challenge and a ready to use solution,” he concludes.